[PIG-1420] Make CONCAT act on all fields of a tuple, instead of just the first two fields of a tuple

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.8.0
• Fix Version/s: 0.8.0
• Component/s: impl
• Labels: five high
• Patch Info: Patch Available

Release Note

CONCAT handles all fields in the supplied tuple, instead of just the first two. This is backwards compatible unless you were relying on it only using the first two fields, which seems unlikely. DataByteArray now has an append() method.

Example use before:

B = FOREACH A GENERATE CONCAT(CONCAT(first_name, ' '), last_name);

Example extended use now:

D = FOREACH C GENERATE CONCAT(first_name, ' ', last_name);

• Tags: pig builtin concat all fields of a tuple
• Assignee: Russell Jurney
• Reporter: Russell Jurney
• Created: 14/May/10 22:56
• Updated: 28/Aug/13 22:47
• Resolved: 20/May/10 17:33

Description

org.apache.pig.builtin.CONCAT (which acts on DataByteArray's internally) and org.apache.pig.builtin.StringConcat (which acts on Strings internally), both act on the first two fields of a tuple. This results in ugly nested CONCAT calls like:

CONCAT(CONCAT(A, ' '), B)

The more desirable form is:

CONCAT(A, ' ', B)

This change will be backwards compatible, provided that no one was relying on the fact that CONCAT ignores fields after the first two in a tuple. This seems a reasonable assumption to make, or at least a small break in compatibility for a sizable improvement.

Issue Links

• is superceded by: PIG-3444 CONCAT with 2+ input parameters fail